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Not that this is a wrong or totally ineffectual thing to do for a
political leader who purports to represent workers; it will certainly
resonate with his base. But Walmart can turn right around and say that
it has to keep costs low to counter the threat of giants like Amazon,
which with their simplified marketing ploy of enabling online ordering,
as short as two-day home delivery and markedly reduced costs, are
threatening Walmart's market share. And that to lose market share is to
go in the direction of contraction, rather than the imperative under
this system of constant expansion, and towards collapse. So then, we go
with hat in hand tremulous outrage to Amazon - or whatever innovating
competitor is next-in-line to steal a march on market domination and
therefore market share.
And this is about as far as any major candidate in this insanely
protracted presidential campaign is likely to get - New Deal solutions
all over again to unprecedented levels of looting the common weal and
looming economic, social and environmental crisis - in the absence of an
overwhelmingly powerful surge of worldwide worker awareness, organizing
and solidarity. To match the increasingly informed, integrated and
organized challenge of globally insurgent concentrated and centralized
capital.
https://tinyurl.com/y6jk4zcq
Bernie Sanders delivered this resolution request from the floor today at
the meeting of Walmart's board of directors:
Let me thank Walmart employee Kat Davis for introducing this resolution,
and it states, and I quote,
Resolved, shareholders of Walmart urge the board to adopt a policy of
promoting significant representation on employee perspectives among
corporate decision makers by requiring that the initial list from which
candidates are chosen by the nominating and governance committee include
hourly associates. The policy should provide that any third party
consultant asked to furnish an initial list that includes such
candidates. End of quote.
Madame Chair, the issue that we are dealing with today is pretty simple.
Walmart is the largest private employer in America and is owned by the
Walton family, the wealthiest family in the United States, worth
approximately 175 billion dollars. And yet, despite the incredible
wealth of its owners, Walmart pays many of its employees starvation
wages. Wages are so low that many of these employees are forced to rely
on government program like food stamps, Medicaid and public housing in
order to survive.
Frankly, the American people are sick and tired of subsidizing the greed
of some of the largest and most profitable corporations in this country.
They are also outraged by the grotesque level of income inequality in
America, as demonstrated by the CEO of Walmart making a thousand times
more than the average Walmart employee. Last year, Walmart made nearly
10 billion dollars in profit it paid its CEO over 20 million dollars in
compensation and it has authorized over 20 billion dollars in stock buy
backs, which will benefit its wealthiest stockholders.
Surely, with all of that, Walmart can afford to pay all of its employees
a living wage of at least 15 dollars an hour.
And that is not a radical idea, because many of Walmart's competitors,
like Amazon, Costco and Target have already moved in that direction.
Further Walmart could give a voice to its workers by allowing them seats
on the board of directors. The concerns of workers, not just
stockholders, shouldbe part of board decisions.
Today, with the passage of this resolution, Walmart can strike a blow
against corporate greed and a grotesque level of income and wealth
inequality that exists in our country.
Please do the right thing. Please pass this resolution.
Thank you very much.
largest
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